Thanksgiving pics

My little brother Matt and his wife Chrissy traveled from Des Moines, Iowa to be with us on Thanksgiving. Zach and Tirzah and their girls also joined us. Good times were had catching up with each other, the girls making jewelry with Aunt Chrissy, playing Blokus, and attempting to moisten up the turkey by letting it bathe a while in a pool of gravy (oh well...Thanksgiving side dishes are my favorite anyway..who needs turkey really?) Thanksgiving is always the most difficult holiday away from family so I loved having them here!

Zach, Tirzah, Chrissy, Matt, Erin and Shane

Me with my girls Liza bear and Hailey bug

Tirzah, Sarah, and Zach

Matt and Chrissy

Hailey, Kayti and Sarah at 'the kids table'

Eliza and Anna

10 Random Things

I've been 'tagged' for the very first time in my blogging career! My good friend Hilary (whom I love and miss dearly :)) challenged me to write ten random things about myself. So even though it's very unlike me to do something like this..I thought what the heck! Plus I feel extremely honored that Hilary would pick me. So here goes....

1. I hate being the center of attention. Whenever I know that all eyes are on me my face always goes red.

2. I love watching cooking shows and painting shows. Two things that I would love to be able to do really well.

3. I prefer hand, arm, and face massages over a back massage.

4. My fears are spiders(although I've had to overcome this fear somewhat since my husband is never home to kill them for me..I have to take matters into my own hands), water (when I don't know how deep it is, also fear of my kids drowning), and car accidents-or one of my kids getting hit by a car.

5. I used to walk in my sleep when I was a kid...frequently. Sorry mom and dad!

6. I never forward e-mails..especially when the e-mail specifically tells me to forward it to X number of people. I refuse. I know..I'm such a rebel.

7. I always sleep with a pillow between my knees. I started doing that out of necessity when I was pregnant and it's just become a habit. I can't sleep without it.

8. I really want to learn how to play the guitar. It's one of my favorite instruments. Eliza and I just picked up a 'learn to play guitar' book from the library and have since mastered 3 chords! Well, maybe not quite 'mastered'. But I am really determined to learn. I love music...it is something that I've always been passionate about.

9. I have a habit of picking at my eyebrows. I'm sure one of these days I'll regret this when I have to start drawing on my eyebrows with eye liner.

10. I'm a very indecisive person. I don't like being in charge and I don't like making decisions. Having too many options overwhelms me.

Alright..that wasn't so hard. Thanks Hil, good times were had!
Am I supposed to tag someone now? (sorry-I'm still new at this)
If so..I TAG Jen, Chrissy, Nanette, and Mom.

My little artist

Back in September Eliza had the opportunity to submit some artwork to the Oakland county "Arts, Beats, and Eats" festival. Children from schools all over Oakland county were invited to participate and were given several different themes to choose from. Eliza chose three different themes: 'What I love about Michigan'(Picture of the beach and lighthouse in Ludington, MI-Painting), 'Pop Culture' (Picture of Phineas and Ferb-Pastels on black paper), and 'Nature' (3-D Bumlebee sitting on a paper flower).

Eliza was selected as one of the winners for her "What I Love About Michigan" painting of Ludington! She won a $25 gift card to Target and her painting was displayed in the Oakland County Executive Offices. Pretty cool, huh?!

I'm so proud of my Liza Bear. She really is such a smart and creative girl. Congratulations Eliza! We love you!

10 Years

Shane and I celebrated our 10 year anniversary on August 18th. 10 years! I can't believe it. We were able to go on an overnight getaway (thanks to Zach and Tirzah for watching our girls) to a cute little German town here in Michigan called Frankenmuth. It was so much fun to spend some time together, just the two of us. We haven't done that in years. I'm so grateful for Shane and for the life we have together. There's no one else I'd rather share it with.

Still catching up! Cory and Angie's Wedding, July 2009

We had such a great trip to Utah in July. The main event and reason we went out was for Shane's brother Cory's wedding. Cory married an incredible girl named Angie and we all just love her. The wedding was beautiful and we loved being with our family and friends. I was also able to celebrate my 30th birthday while we were there which was so much fun. I had a spoil day with mom and Emily-we went out to lunch, shopping and pedicures! It was a great trip. Here are some highlights..

Family Meeting

Last night I went to Enrichment Meeting while Shane stayed home and watched the girls. Because he is having to wake up at 4:00 in the morning for work he usually goes to bed pretty early...so after he got Ava to sleep he went to bed and let Eliza and Hailey stay up and watch a movie until I got home. After I arrived home I sat with the girls and as we talked about what they did with daddy while I was gone Eliza informed me that they had a family meeting in the fort that they had built downstairs. Of course Eliza was the one who called the meeting and decided that the topic of discussion would be 'how to make our family stronger'. She handed out paper and asked that everyone write down ways in which we could make our family stronger. Here were the results:

Hailey: wrote 'Family' at the top of her paper and proceded to draw a picture of our family 'trying to be like Jesus' and a picture of her going to school with her backpack.

Eliza's list: Family Meeting. Stronger Family. Try to go to church every Sunday, have family game night, family home evening, family outings, family fun night, have family meetings more often, and have family morning prayer.

So at this point I'm thinking...oh how sweet...I wonder what Shane wrote.

Shane's list: Family Meeting. Becoming a stronger family.
1. Lift weights
2. Do lots and lots of work
3. Enter weight lifting competitions
4. Work out
5. Wear speedos

Oh my gosh, I laughed so hard. I could just picture Eliza getting upset with Shane at the 'family meeting' because he wasn't taking the assignment seriously. Anyway, I got a good laugh out of it. Does anyone else think my husband is hilarious?

Catch Up #2 GRADUATION!!!!!

Well, HE DID IT! Meet my husband 'Dr. Dangerfield'. I can't believe it's finally over! What an amazing feeling. What an accomplishment. I'm so proud of my man. Graduation was a very surreal, emotional, and wonderful day.

Proud parents...Dad and Mom Dangerfield.It was so great to have Mom, Dad, Steph and Cory out. We were so grateful that they made the effort to be here to support Shane. Our families are awesome!

My mom and dad were able to make it for the graduation as well. They've been so supportive of us and always make an effort to travel out for special occasions. Dr. Zach (also a recent grad) was able to join us too!It was such an emotional day for Shane and I. We have worked so hard and been through so much to get to this point in our lives. Apparently the divorce rate for medical students is extremely high, but I feel that everything Shane and I have been through over the last ten years-because we have been able to see the 'big picture'- has only made us stronger and brought us closer together. I love Shane so much and I'm so grateful for his hard work and dedication to me and our little family. Congratulations my love! You're amazing.

Playing catch up #1 AVA'S FIRST BIRTHDAY

So the last few months have been crazy for our family, leaving me with little time to post anything on our blog. On top of the no time issue our computer has been acting up...so I have a lot to catching up to do. The first event I wanted to document was my baby's 1st birthday. We had Zach and Tirzah and their girls over for a little BBQ party in our new backyard. It was so much fun! I can't believe how fast this year has gone by..... It was a day full of getting messy...nothing new really. I had to go in and frost the cupcakes so I asked my brother Zach just to keep an eye on Ava for me for a minute and this is what I came back to! She had gotten baby food all over herself! Thanks a lot for your help Zach.

So we got the baby food mess cleaned up and then it was time for cake! MMMM

Ava was in heaven!

Of course Ava's favorite gift was the gift bags and tissue paper.



Eliza was in charge of the entertainment for the evening. This was my favorite of the many games and activities she came up with. 'Pin the diaper on Ava'..is that classic or what?! I still laugh when I see this picture.

Daddy nibbling on the birthday girl. We love our little Ava girl. Happy Birthday baby!

Trip to Utah

We took a trip to Utah for my mom's retirement from the Tabernacle Choir. She sang in the choir for twenty years and had so many amazing experiences. It was so awesome to be able to be there to support mom and reflect on the impact that her membership in the choir has had on all of us through the years. Here's a slideshow I put together of our trip. It was great fun!

My little puppies

My instructions to the girls after bath time were as follows: "dry off, lotion up, and put on jammies so I can dry your hair." Simple enough, right? Well, after about 10 minutes or so I went in to check on their progress and this is what I found....

I call them "Panty Head Puppies"

Hailey even took the liberty of drawing a circle around her eye with marker...nice effect.

The instigator of the 'Panty Head Puppies'

I can't believe I've never thought to do this. My girls are so smart.

Anyway, I thought it was pretty hilarious. So typical of my girls to come up with something like this. They always keep me laughing. I sure love 'em!

Cute pics of my baby- enough said!

Match Day! Finally!

Well, it's official! Shane was accepted to the Pediatric Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation residency program at Children's Hospital in Detroit. Which means we will be here for another 5 years! This field of medicine fits Shane like a glove. He's going to be an incredible physician. I'm so proud of him.

Match Day 2009 was a lot of fun. First, awards were presented to some of the students based on their outstanding acheivement in different areas of medicine....and guess who received the Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation departmental award??? Yep, my husband! It was really cute because Shane was holding Ava when they announced his name for the award, so he went up to the front and had his picture taken with the head of the PM&R department...and Ava. Later they passed out 'THE LETTERS' and had everyone opened them at the same time. We pretty much already knew that Shane was going to be accepted to this residency, but it was sure nice to finally see it in writing! To top off the afternoon, the school provided a nice buffet lunch for all the students and their families.

Shane and his good friend Larry-who was accepted to the Pediatric residency also at Children's Hospital.

Shane and Dr. Pelshaw-the Pediatric PM&R program director... and Eliza in the corner.

Shane and Erin. We really like each other...ALOT. Oh..and Hailey in the corner.

Eliza will be 13 when we are done with residency! How crazy is that?

And Hailey will be 10! OK, now I'm getting a little depressed...

Shane was definately the only medical student present at Match Day with his wife and THREE children! It has been a LONG road for our family, and we know it's not over yet. But we are so excited to be moving on to this next chapter in our lives.

Jeebs

Ava is NINE months old now! She has made it very clear to us during the short time she has been a part of our family that she is 'Queen' of our household. Hailey has graciously stepped down from that postition and has joined the rest of us as lowly serfs in our girl infested castle.

This face has 'TROUBLE' written all over it.

Ok, it also has 'CUTEST BABY EVER!' written all over it.

Ava is really starting to come alive. She is sitting up really well and starting to vocalize a lot. Her favorite words are 'da da' (usually said when she's happy), 'ma ma' (usually said when she's angry), 'Gah', 'Ah vah' (sounds like Ava!), and 'Uh liza' (sounds like Eliza). She is quite the jabber mouth. She laughs a lot, still loves playing with paper and cups and other non-toy objects, and likes to pick up little 'specks' with her little thumb and pointer finger. Yesterday at her doctors appointment in the waiting room I stood her up next to the fish tank and she kept trying to grab the fish though the glass with her fingers. It was really cute.

Here's Ava's now THREE tooth grin. She is actually in the process of breaking the fourth right now. We've had a lot of sleepless nights and crying lately. It's ok though because she really does make up for it by being so darn cute.

Girls Night!

Sometimes when Shane is on call at the hospital or when he's out on a scout camp out we like to have girls night together! We had a lot of fun the other night while Shane was on an overnight camp out with the scouts...in the snow!...in the winter!...HERE in Michigan! Why do they torture themselves? Anyway, the first thing we did was make personal pizza's. The girls got creative and made heart shaped pizza's. Hailey got a little crazy with the sauce.

Then we played UNO on the the sofa bed (which was later used for our sleep over in the living room). Hailey won every single game. Ava joined in on the fun as well. She prefers playing with paper and cards far above her actual baby toys.

After cards it was manicure/pedicure time. The girls soaked their feet in some bubble bath and then we painted their nails with their color-or in Hailey's case- many colors of choice. And yes,

we did get a nail polish stain on the carpet. One of these days I'll learn my lesson.

I love spending time with my girls. They're so crazy and so much fun to be with. They keep me laughing every day with the things they say and do. We love girls night!!